Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #429

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, Pandemonio, and ResolveTO, Author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

• Windy. “This is the Internet we were promised. I’ve been glued to it as Florence heads towards the East Coast. What an amazing visualization of the world’s weather systems. As we face increasingly extreme weather this year, tools like this are an insight into our changing planet that help us understand climate intuitively. One of the best interactive displays of information I’ve seen in a long time.” (Alistair for Hugh). 
• Broad Band: The Untold History of the Women Who Made the Internet – Rhizome – Vimeo. “I was at XOXO Fest for the first time this year, and it was full of amazing talks about the past and future of the Internet, from the perspective of those who make things on it. Claire L. Evans did an amazing talk about WELL, ECHO, and the early days of BBSing; here’s a discussion on the subject (with ECHO founder Stacy Horn, and others!)” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Is the Government More Entrepreneurial Than You Think? (Ep. 348) – Freakonomics Radio. “Is it fair to say Alistair thinks that governments just get in the way of good innovation? Maybe that’s a stretch, but we have had a few Twitter exchanges/conversations about whether or not regulation tends to help or hurt things. Well, this is a fascinating analysis, suggesting firstly that governments have both bankrolled and actively developed some of the most important innovations we’ve seen in the past seventy years (including, oh, the Internet, GIS, Tesla, and the majority of R&D on drugs). And that governments are very good at reducing risk for businesses, and very bad at capturing the upside.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Warren Buffett on why bubbles happen: People see neighbors ‘dumber than they are’ getting rich – CNBC. “I love listening to Warren Buffet talk about just about anything, and his views on the 2008 crisis are no exception.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy? – The New Yorker. “This article has a lot of buzz this week. It made me not want to share it (because, odds are, you may have already seen it). Still… this is a very important read. If Facebook is, indeed, broken… we could make the argument that the news is broken, journalism is in trouble and a lot of other alarmist statements that may be true. We need an area/place/publishing platform where information can flow (freely and truthfully) to all. Is that Facebook? I’m not convinced that it is (or that it could be). How about you?” (Mitch for Alistair).

• Are Audiobooks As Good For You As Reading? Here’s What Experts Say – Time. “Every morning, before dawn, you can find me walking. My earbuds are not filled with heavy metal, mellow jazz or the most recent podcasts. I listen to audiobooks. It’s a habit that I love. I can’t enough of them. It’s less about the book in audio format, and much more about having these amazing thinkers in my ears and giving me a crazy-long seminar on the topic that is of most interest to them. I’m a big fan of hibooks for audiobooks (it’s like Netflix). So, while I understand the mechanics of this research (and article), it misses a bigger idea: maybe audiobooks are much more than just a book being read to someone and more like a seminar?” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Broad Band: The Untold History of the Women Who Made the Internet from Rhizome on Vimeo.